Zuckerberg Bankruptcy Law Office

A blogger from Florida shares a sad personal tale about what she calls
"The Merry-Go-Round Of Financial Mistakes".

• To get a job, she needed a car.
• To get a car, she needed a job - or financing!
• Her godfather cosigned on her car loan to buy a used vehicle.
• Money got tight, so Hayden cut back car insurance (She didn't realize she was legally obligated to carry full coverage on a financed car.)
• She had a near-fatal accident.
• With no health insurance, she now owed $2000 in medical bills.
• She had no funds to make repairs to her car, so it finally blew a gasket. (By now she has a job and is going to school.)
• Her godfather gives her an old second car he had, but it cost her thousands to get it into driveable shape.
• Meanwhile, Hayden cosigns her brother's student loan (her biggest mistake, she says).

It's Hayden's reflections on everything that happened to her leading up to filing  bankruptcy that I particularly wanted to share with my blog readers and bankruptcy clients:

"Most people have the idea that people swimming in debt are folks who just spent a bunch of money on their 'wants'.  The reality is far more complex…If the margin between gross income and expenses is so slim you cannot save, you'll have no money for emergencies.  If you use credit for these emergencies, you have then incurred additional expenses which your immediate income does not cover."

"By the time most people file for bankruptcy, it's too late.  They've taken out second mortgages to consolidate credit card debts.  They've dipped into their 401k's….They've sold everything of value just to pay the minimum tribute that their debt monster requires."

"Bankruptcy is not an easy financial solution but it can be successfully used as a tool to give a person, or a corporation, a fighting second chance", Hayden ends.  (As a bankruptcy attorney for almost twenty five years, I don't think I could have said it better myself!)I